Hide and seek

Sara POV

"W..who..which men are you talking about?" My tongue stammered when I questioned him.

"I recognized a man from your old album. I mistakenly believed it to be your Uncle Joe because he was standing directly behind you while you were cutting the cake." He stared directly into my face.

Should I tell him the truth now? I am afraid of what he will think of me after knowing the truth.

"Sara, why are you quiet?" His voice burst my mental bubble.

"Ye..yes." I nodded my head.

"What will you do, Aron, if you discover that I killed someone?" I glared fearfully at him.

"Sara, what kind of joke is this?" He burst out laughing.

"How could you murder a man when you can't even kill a mosquito?" He laughed so hard that he wiped away his tears.

"But I did kill Uncle Joe by accident." I tell him the truth.

"I did assassinate Queen Victoria, too." He laughed at me.

Now, how should I make him believe in me? He didn't take my word seriously. If I told him that I saw Uncle Joe's ghost every night in my nightmares, I'm sure he would make fun of me even more. I decided to remain silent about this.

"Sara, see how beautiful the sunrise is." He gestured toward the sun, which rose behind the sea.

"Yes, it's so beautiful. You know, when I lived in that village with your mom, I used to watch the sunset and sunrise every day, and I always wanted us to do it together."

"My wife is so romantic." He hugged me from behind and kissed my ears.

"Aron, it's time for us to go down this mountain. We've consumed all our food, and the scorching sun is about to tan our skin."

"You're right. We need to go straight away." He nodded his head.

We packed our luggage and started our descent from the mountain. It's simple for us to get down from the mountain. Sometimes, it feels like someone is pushing us to run on the path. The pushing force on our bodies often forced us to fall. It took us twelve hours to ascend the mountain, but it only took us eight hours to descend.

We reached our house by afternoon. He insisted on seeing me in a red bikini, so I changed into one after we finished showering together. I felt nervous as he stared intensely at my body, trying to shield myself from his intense gaze. I used a towel to cover my body, but he snatched it from my hand. He was about to hover over me for romance, but my stomach grumbled, so I asked him to eat lunch first.

We had a little nap after lunch and then decided to play hide-and-seek in the evening. I asked him to find me first. I chose to hide in the house's backyard after we decided to conceal anywhere on the island. There was a storage room in the backyard, so I hid myself in that room. The room was covered in dust, had a ton of ancient furniture, and had spider webs.

I sat under the table, using the hole in the door to peek outside. He came there to look for me, but he didn't find me there, so he went in another direction. I take immense pride in not letting him catch me. To hide myself, I decided to open the door and change my location. When I peered through the hole once more to see what was outside, I saw an eye. The sight of the eye in front of the hole filled me with fear.

"Please open the door, doll. Uncle is here, waiting for you." His voice rang in my ears once more.

I closed my eyes and sat in the room's corner, locking the door from inside.

"Please don't do any harm to me. It wasn't my intention to murder you." I broke down in tears. My body sweated profusely, and I trembled from fear. After a few minutes, I finally dared to open my eyes and cast a glance around. I cried out in fear when I saw a blood-stained hand lying on the floor in front of me.

"Doll, did you like my gift?" Uncle Joe's wicked voice sounded in my ear.

"No, please let me go; it was just a mistake. I didn't kill you deliberately." I covered my ears to stop hearing his voice.

"Sara, what happened?" Aron shook my shoulders. Hearing his voice, I opened my eyes and hugged him.

"I told you, Aaron, he is here. I saw him here. Look at this hand covered with blood." I instructed him to examine that bloody hand closely.

"Sara, calm down; there's no one around, and you shouldn't be afraid. This is just red paint on dry wood." To soothe me, he ran a hand over my hair.

"Dry wood?" I lifted my head from his chest and gazed at the hand.

"Yes, he was right; it was red-painted dry wood." I removed that wood and gave it a thorough examination.

"But who placed this redwood here?" I questioned him.

"Perhaps they left this wood here when my dad sent some workers to fix this house before Jerry arranged our honeymoon." He explained to me.

"Yes, that was just my delusion." With relief, I exhaled.

"I did, however, catch a glimpse of the eye peering at me through the opening." I gestured to the tiny opening in the door.

"I see. Are you afraid to look into that eye? It was mine." When he noticed the hole, he laughed.

"But given that you had already located me, why didn't you enter the room?" I looked at him with anger.

"I intended to wait for you to exit the room independently."

"Aron, I will kill you. How could you scare me to death? Listen to my heartbeat; see how it's beating so fast." I gave him a shoulder punch.

"It's a lot of fun scaring you, Sara." He laughed out loud.

"Aron, you are well aware of my childhood trauma, so how could you scare me in such a way?" I complained to him about his behavior.

"I am sorry, Sara. I didn't mean to hurt you; I was just enjoying playing with you." He apologized for scaring me.

"It's ok, don't do this again." I warned him.

"Let's move now." I got up from the floor and asked him to go inside the house.

"Sara, you forgot to carry this blood-coated hand with you." Once more, he made fun of me.

"Aron, I will kill you if you make fun of me."

"No, Sara, please don't murder me because I'm afraid of dying the same way you killed Uncle Joe." He surrendered his hand to mock me again.

He is making fun of me, assuming that I was joking with him about killing Uncle Joe, but he is unaware that I did kill Uncle Joe. Observing the trust in his eyes, I am now more hesitant to reveal the truth to him.